Andius walked with a calm precision, he had nothing but confidence that he would be able to take down this panther with just one well placed sneak attack. All he had to do was get into position and drop on the creature, and it would be over just like that, this months rent taken care of. It seemed he was in luck too, as the creature looked like it was sleeping, which would make the task of sneaking up on it all the easier!

Last step taken and in place, Andius slowly drew both of his daggers and readied himself to drop from the branch. A slow breath later, and his foot left the safety of the wood, no going back now. Wind rushed past Andius’ ears as he fell nearly ten feet towards the creatures back, his daggers plunged down past his body and he felt his blades find their mark!

Immediately he knew he had made a mistake. The blades didn’t sink in deep like with the Gnolls, it felt like he had just tried to stab past a metal breastplate and only had minimal success. The great cat woke with a pained yowl as Andius ripped his blades out of it’s back, jumping off and landing on the ground a few feet back, “Oh God, what is this thing?” He cursed as the beast stood and growled at him.

He readied his blade as the beast coiled and sprang at him, this thing was fast! Andius dove to the side as quickly as he could, taking a slice against his calf and rolling to a stop, popping to his feet quickly, this would not be an easy fight! His eyes narrowed as he got ready for the hardest fight he had ever been in, crouching down low and readying his blades, determination in his eyes that had never been there in his day to day life.

Again the beast charged at him, but it seemed slower than it should have been to him, the effects of his speed boost must have been making the world seem slower than it should be. The panther leapt into the air to pounce on him, but instead of dodging back and to the side, he rolled under it, missing a claw to the back by inches and scoring a slash to it’s underside that barely cut past it’s thick pelt.

A rage filled roar bellowed from the creature, and it turned faster than Andius could react, slashing it’s claws across his abdomen like a flash and rending his armor open, a deep bleeding wound burning Andius’ nerves. He screamed as the pain hit him, and immediately checked his status screen. He didn’t like what he saw.

——————

HP: 100/130(bleeding, -1hp per second)

——————

It didn’t seem like a lot of damage, but with how fast this thing was, it could take him out in a matter of seconds. Andius was determined and rushed forward at the creature, only to be swatted to the side with the force of a hammer. He looked up only to see the panther bearing down on him, and he rolled to the side just in time, jabbing a blade at it’s side and making it jump to the side. Andius was sure he had hurt it a lot with his stealth attack, he knew he had a chance!

Getting to his feet, he saw the panther bearing down on him again, and managed to side step it’s swipe, gaining another slash against it’s hide as it passed, only to get a slash across his face from it’s hind legs, the deep slash taking out one of his eyes! He fell to the ground with the force of the blow, screaming in pain as he felt for his eye that had bit torn to shreds, it was gone!

He stood with shaking movements, pain threatening to overwhelm him and make him black out. The creature was circling him now, playing with him as if he were no longer a threat, and just prey to be hunted. Andius was not prey, he was predator, and he would be sure to prove it to this monster! Andius rushed forward, screaming his anger with the beast as he bared down upon it. He had learned some of it’s attack pattern, he knew that the beast would swat to the side when he rushed it, and as soon as he got within it’s range he jumped into the air as he had with the Gnolls, dodging the swipe and twisting mid air to stab down into the creatures back.

This time he didn’t jump off, he stabbed his daggers into the creatures back again and again, letting the strongest feature of his fighting style eat away at the panthers health with every blow. It yowled in rage and agony as Andius continued to rain blows down upon it, and took off at a run, jumping and twisting mid air, slamming it’s back and Andius against one of the few remaining pillars of the ruins. The impact made Andius’ bones scream in agony, and a few loud snaps announced that he had broken some ribs.

He fell off of the monstrous creature into a pile on the ground, a bit of debris from the impact falling to the floor around him. His entire body screamed in protest as he tried to stand, but he knew that if he didn’t, he would be this things lunch. He would not be prey, he would not go back to being stepped on by everyone and used as they liked! With a shout of defiance, Andius once again stood on his feet, using the pillar as support. That’s when he heard a voice that made his blood run cold.

“It has been a long time since one of your kind dared attack me, human.” His head whipped around to find the source, the deep, bone chilling sound that had nearly made him give up his will to fight. He realized it was spoken, but rather whispered into his mind directly! “Was it bravery or foolishness that made you attack the guardian of this forest so brazenly?” The voice asked, almost mockingly, “Though I suppose it matters little, you will die here now, Human. But know you have earned my respect for fighting until the very end.”

The panther, it was the panther speaking. With a grunt, Andius locked eyes with it as it slowly circled him, pain making his thoughts muddled as he held his chest with one hand, “Don t suppose you’d be willing to uh, let this slide?” He asked with little hope it would work. As he thought, the creature just laughed, which Andius thought was a bit odd since it was speaking in his mind.

“Hardly, you will die an honorable death though. I am sure they will speak of the man who wounded the guardian for ages to come… if they ever find your body!” The panther charged before it even finished speaking, rushing at Andius with even more speed that it had used before! Andius leapt backwards as hard as he could, but he wasn’t fast enough! The oversized paw of his enemy crashed into his ribs, shattering all of them into dust before he was sent hurtling through the air and into the pool of water. His vision started to go black as his body was submerged, finally submitting to defeat as the world started to slowly fade away.

——————

Hp: 10/130(blee-ERROR. Regenerating, +50hp per second.)

——————

His health was going up!? How could… the water! The experience was unbelievably painful, his bones reforming into place and his flesh melding together all at once, while his skin felt like it was being frozen solid and burned at the same time! He didn’t know what the water was, but he could feel it’s power filling him, as if he had awoken his body to new lengths that he hadn’t even know was possible!

As the last of his flesh melded together, he started to swim back up to the surface of the surprisingly deep pool, but that influx of power into his system wasn’t stopping! He could feel something inside of him straining to contain it all, and he watched as the water level of the pool began to decrease rapidly. He looked down at his chest, and saw that the water was flowing into him! This wasn’t good, he didn’t know what was going on, but he instinctually knew he couldn’t take in any more of this stuff!

He struggled towards the surface of water as fast as he could, his skin melting away like he was in acid, and he screamed in pain as something inside of him finally broke, and his body was ripped to shreds in a violent explosion that could be seem from miles around, a pillar of blue white light shooting into the sky and splitting the clouds, before dying down and leaving the world entirely silent for a few long moments. All that remained of Andius was a dark red tint to the waters of the pool, which had been trained nearly ten feet deeper.

You have died, you will respawn in two hours. You have lost 10% of your accumulated experience.

All at once, the pain stopped, and Andius found himself gasping on the ground in a dark and ethereal place, light wisps of energy floating around in the void with him. The room was absolutely nothing at all, the only thing in it was him, his body ghostly and transparent. “G-god… that was way too real… I don’t know if I can keep playing this game…” His voice sounded strange, echoing through the endless abyss.

A small screen flashed to life in front of him, letting him watch the fight that had just ended in his defeat from an outside perspective. He was frustrated with this loss and his memory of his own death was still fresh, but he couldn’t help but feel excited again while he watched the fight commence. He looked absolutely badass in this fight even if he did lose, and it was against a guardian of the forest apparently, so no one would blame him for losing right? He thought he did pretty well despite the fact this creature was probably way above him in levels.

When he got to the part with the explosion, his eyes went wide, did that really happen? Whatever that stuff was, it filled him with so much power his body literally exploded, and that light show was like something straight out of an anime! “Wow, that was pretty cool! I bet if I go back at a later level and beat that thing, I could probably try to drain some more of that stuff and get super strong, hopefully without the whole exploding part though… That experience loss is rough, but I was only level four, right? Shouldn’t have been too big of a hit.” He thought about it for a few more moments and grimaced, “Geez, dying at higher levels is going to suck!”

He moved to sit down and review the fight, see what he did wrong and how he could improve, and a chair materialized beneath him. “Well… That’s handy. Can I shape this space however I want?” He wondered aloud, before deciding to just try it and find out. He envisioned a bean bag chair next to him, and sure enough, one appeared!

“Oh, I’m going to like this! Maybe waiting for respawn isn’t so bad!” He moved over to the bean bag chair and let the other one vanish, before he looked up and mentally tried to hit log out. Nothing happened. He frowned and tried again, still nothing.

With a frown he opened his menu with a small mental flex, and log out was grayed out with a timer. “Oh, so you cant log out while you’re dead?… Ugh.” He decided to try and get some rest to wait out his respawn since he couldn’t do anything else, and managed to fall into blissful sleep in only a few moments.